Rozner: 10 years ago, Blackhawks' Cup drought ended in blur

No shame in thinking that it seems like only yesterday.

But it was 10 years ago Tuesday on a wild night in Philadelphia that the Blackhawks won their first Stanley Cup in 49 years.

Yes, 10 years already. Take a moment and ponder that.

The night is remembered most for the Patrick Kane goal in overtime that no one saw except Kane and Flyers goaltender Michael Leighton.

But being on the ice while conducting interviews after they danced with the greatest trophy in sports, what sticks out now - at least for me - was the joy of so many young players, Kane and captain Jonathan Toews only 21 when the playoffs began, but at least able to drink legally from the big silver bowl.

While it was hardly easy, it wasn't nearly as difficult as winning the next two Cups, having lost half a team in the summer of 2010 to salary cap casualties.

That 2010 team was so young and so deep, though the focus was so often on the two big stars and others drafted into the limelight, like Dustin Byfuglien, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.

Even with all that talent, the dirty work still had to be done and though it didn't often show up on the score sheet, it was always Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa and Andrew Ladd in the corners and along the boards tying up the Philadelphia defense, extending zone time and creating glorious looks for their teammates.

Seeing Hossa handed the Cup was as good as picking it up himself, said Toews, after Hossa had been with Pittsburgh when Detroit beat the Penguins in the 2008 Final, and then with Detroit in 2009 when Pittsburgh got its revenge.

Ladd was indescribably valuable as leader on and off the ice, able to play any role on any of four lines and willing to drop the gloves when necessary.

And Sharp the sniper was a workhorse, third in playoff scoring on the club behind Toews and Kane with 22 points in 22 games.

The night the Hawks won it, Sharp scored on a 4-on-4 to knot the game in the second period, was on the ice for all 4 Hawks goals and led the team as a plus-3, one of only three Hawks forwards above water in Game 6.

Late in the second when the game was tied at 2-2, he picked the pocket of Flyers defenseman Matt Carle, poking the puck to Kane, who walked up the boards and found Niklas Hjalmarsson at the blueline.

As Ladd went hard to the net, Sharp dragged another Flyer in between the circles to create space, and Ladd tipped the Hjalmarsson shot past Leighton for a 3-2 Hawks lead.

On Kane's game-winner, it was Sharp who forced a turnover and bad pass to the point, where Brian Campbell eventually slid the puck to Kane. Sharp didn't get an assist on either of the final 2 goals, but neither score happens without his work.

So many plays that went unnoticed were the ones that gave the Hawks a chance to win the game in OT.

"Nobody on this team cares about being on the score sheet after the game," Sharp said that night as the Hawks celebrated. "All we care about is the final score. That's what's so great about this group of players."

Also on the ice that night was Rocky Wirtz, the true hero of that Stanley Cup and those that followed.

It was Wirtz who hired John McDonough, who hired Scotty Bowman, who brought in Joel Quenneville. Not one of the three titles would have occurred without that chain of events.

Wirtz lifted the Cup and took pictures as did everyone mentioned above, all a part of something that Hawks fans only a few years earlier would have declared impossible in their lifetime.

So many responsible for it and so many willing to stand in the background and watch the stars revel in the glory of it all.

So sweet it was on that very warm June night in Philadelphia, a dream come true for millions and the culmination of so much hard work.

It seemed relatively easy in 2010, especially facing a team without a goaltender, and no one knew how much tougher it would get, two straight first-round exits followed by two more Stanley Cups, sandwiching a brutal seventh-game, overtime loss to Los Angeles in 2014.

The sheer number of excruciating series against very tough opponents is too many to count through the best of those years, the number of miles adding up over time and the toll so obviously exacting.

Maybe that makes it a bit more difficult to summon the memories from a decade ago, but for all those players and every fan, it exists in their hearts as the one that gave them all they ever hoped for and filled a gaping hole that never again needs repair.

Ten years. Really. It has been 10 years. And what a ride it has been.